Doppelgangers
by Kythe42
Summary: Jo has a bizarre experience involving Henry and she confronts him about it. - "Is there some big secret about yourself that you haven't told me?" Henry gulped and felt himself break out in a cold sweat at her words. "There are of course aspects of my life that I would prefer to keep private, but I'm sure that this is true of everyone. Why do you ask?"


Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. I'm merely borrowing them for my own amusement.

Author's Notes: This story was written for the It's a Long Story Ficathon event and was requested by MsFaust on AO3.

* * *

Henry looked up from his paperwork as Jo entered his office. She seemed hesitant as she took a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk, and the expression on her face was a mix of confused and worried. "Good morning Jo. Are you alright?"

"Hey Henry," Jo said and bit her lip nervously. "I had a rather strange experience last night and it sort of has to do with you."

Henry felt his heart start to race, wondering if she had somehow found out about his condition. He hadn't died the previous night, but what if she had met someone who had previously witnessed one of his deaths? "Oh? Why don't you tell me about it?" he asked trying to keep his voice as calm as possible.

"Um well... it's just..." Jo trailed off unsure quite how she should broach the subject, because she had no idea how Henry would react. "Ok is there some big secret about yourself that you haven't told me?"

Henry gulped and felt himself break out in a cold sweat at her words. "There are of course aspects of my life that I would prefer to keep private, but I'm sure that this is true of everyone. Why do you ask?"

"Well I feel ridiculous even asking this, but do you have some secret second identity, or maybe a twin brother?"

Henry went from feeling like he was on the verge of a panic attack to just plain puzzled. "I haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about. What exactly happened last night that would cause you to ask such questions?"

Jo took a deep breath before launching into her explanation. "Ok the thing is, a friend of mine recommended this historical fiction series to me called Horatio Hornblower. It's not the sort of thing I usually watch, but I promised her that I'd watch the first episode just to humor her. Then right as soon as the show started, I found myself completely blown away by the fact that the main character looks just like you except maybe ten to fifteen years younger."

Henry frowned. "Well that is quite the coincidence, but clearly it couldn't be me if the man looked younger than me."

"But the show is kind of old, so I looked up the actor, whose name is Ioan Gruffudd, to see if I could find any more recent pictures of him, and damn Henry, I swear the guy could be your twin." Jo pulled up a picture of the actor on her phone to show to Henry.

Henry's eyebrows shot up in surprise. It was like looking into a mirror. "That is truly remarkable. While I admit that the resemblance is uncanny, I can assure you that I have never gone by the name Ioan Gruffudd, nor have I ever pursued a career in acting."

"Yeah it's so eerie though. I would love to see some photos of you in your early twenties just to compare them to this actor when he was doing the Horatio Hornblower show," Jo replied hopefully.

Henry sighed. "I'm afraid that won't be possible. All photographs of me when I was younger were destroyed in a house fire." He really hated to have to lie to Jo yet again, but he needed her not to question why he couldn't comply with her request.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Jo said failing to keep the disappointment out of her voice. She took her phone back from Henry and loaded a picture of the Horatio Hornblower character to show him. "Maybe you could just take a look and tell me if you looked like this when you were younger?"

Henry took the phone from Jo once more and examined the newest image she had loaded. He blinked in surprise. Though he hadn't been in his early twenties for well over two centuries, he still remembered quite well what he had looked like, and it was just like the face staring out at him from the phone. "I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't seeing it with my own eyes, but this is exactly what I looked like at that age, though granted I did not dress quite like this."

Jo laughed as she took her phone back from Henry. "No, I wouldn't imagine you would have. Do you think maybe you have a twin and you were just separated at birth or something like that?"

"I'm fairly certain that's not possible, but Abe has recently developed a knack for finding lost relatives. Perhaps I will ask him to look into it when I get home." Obviously there was no way that the actor could be his twin, but he was curious if it was possible that they could be related in some other way.

Jo nodded. "Let me know if you find anything because this is just too weird."

"I'm sure it's merely a coincidence. There are lots of non-related individuals in the world that closely resemble each other."

"Yeah but usually not that closely," Jo muttered.

"Be that as it may, it's highly unlikely that I am related to Ioan Gruffudd," Henry restated. Even if Abe did find some sort of distant connection between this actor and himself, he wasn't sure if he'd want to share the information with Jo.

"Ok, well I guess I should let you get back to work. I've got paperwork that I need to catch up on. Promise me you'll tell me if you find anything?"

Henry chuckled. "Alright Jo. I promise." He smiled and shook his head at Jo as she left his office. He had to admit that his curiosity was piqued, and he'd definitely be looking into this Ioan Gruffudd fellow more when he had time.

* * *

Henry found himself slightly distracted throughout his work day. His thoughts would keep momentarily drifting back to Ioan Gruffudd and the strong physical resemblance between them. He had some time left on his break after he finished his lunch, so he got onto one of the lab computers to research the actor on the internet. He wondered if the actor could possibly be a son of his that he didn't know about, but he was relieved to see that the year Ioan Gruffudd had been born was before Abigail had left, and he'd never been unfaithful to her. Still, in his case, it was quite possible that the man was an unknown grandchild or great-grandchild. Perhaps he was a nephew or cousin of some sort. He would have to ask Abe for help with this aspect of his research later that night. He was pleasantly surprised to find out that the actor was Welsh, and Henry was half Welsh on his mother's side, so perhaps the chances that they were related were more likely than he had initially anticipated.

Henry opted not to read through the list of movies and television shows that the actor had been in because he knew it wouldn't mean anything to him. Instead he switched to the search engine's images function and browsed through the various photographs available online of Ioan Gruffudd. He stared at them in amazement, still not being able to get over the fact that the man looked exactly like him. It was a truly surreal experience, especially seeing the actor in all manner of dress, both modern and historical.

"Whoa Doc! I had no idea there were so many pictures of you online," said Lucas who had just come back from his lunch break.

Henry jumped, startled at Lucas's sudden appearance. He had been so absorbed in what he was looking at on the computer that he hadn't heard his assistant enter the morgue. "These aren't pictures of me Lucas."

"Wow, a lot of them look like fashion shoot photos. Did you used to be a model or something?"

"I said the pictures are not of me," Henry repeated growing a touch irritated.

"Yeah right. There just happens to be another man out there that looks exactly like you?" said Lucas skeptically as he gestured to the computer screen.

"As a matter of fact there is," Henry answered firmly. "His name is Ioan Gruffudd and he is an actor. I only became aware of him this morning when Jo brought him to my attention."

"That's seriously not you?" said Lucas, his face falling in disappointment.

"No it is not," Henry insisted. "Though I do find myself intrigued and unsettled by the uncanny resemblance."

"Yeah that is beyond freaky," said Lucas looking back and forth between Henry and the photos on the computer.

"It makes one wonder if everyone has one or more doppelgangers out there that they are unaware of. Perhaps there is an actress out there that strongly resembles Jo," Henry murmured to himself, lost in thought.

"I'll be on the look out and let you know if I find anything," Lucas promised.

"What?" Henry asked, snapping out of his thoughts and looked up at Lucas.

"I said I'll let you know if I find anything," Lucas repeated. "Well I'm ready to get back to work whenever you are."

Henry gave Lucas a puzzled look, then nodded. He wasn't sure what Lucas was talking about, but it probably wasn't important. "Just give me a minute and I'll be right with you." Henry gave one last look to the images on the screen, then closed the browser window, and went to join Lucas for the next autopsy.

* * *

Later that night, Henry shared what he'd learned about his actor lookalike with Abe, who had been just as stunned about the whole thing as he had been. Abe seemed eager to help, and got to work on researching Ioan Gruffudd's lineage right after dinner. Henry let Abe do his thing, and he tried to put it out of his mind until such a time as Abe turned anything up. The following morning, he arrived at work a bit early. Lucas hadn't arrived yet, so he thought he'd take the opportunity to catch up on some paperwork, when Jo stormed into his office with a hard serious look on her face. "What's wrong Jo? Has something happened?"

Jo took a deep breath before speaking. "You know, when I came to you yesterday about the whole Ioan Gruffudd thing, it wasn't my intention to upset you."

Henry raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Of course Jo. I know that wasn't your intent. Please don't worry about it. I might be a little unsettled over it, but I really did find the whole thing rather intriguing, and Abe is doing some research to see if we are in any way related."

"Well if you're not upset, then why did you feel the need to take revenge?" Jo demanded. "I thought that sort of thing was beneath you Henry."

"Jo what on earth are you talking about?" Henry asked completely bewildered. "I never sought out revenge against you."

"Does the name Alana de la Garza mean anything to you?" Jo snapped.

"No, I'm sorry. Should it?"

"It happens to be the name of an actress that very closely resembles me," Jo clarified.

Henry's eyes widened as he began to understand. "Oh I see."

"I caught Lucas researching her on his phone when I ran into him at a bar last night. He said he was doing it for you because you wanted to know if I had my own actress doppelganger."

Henry's expression changed to one of dismay now that he fully understood what had happened. "Oh Jo, I'm so sorry. I was only thinking out loud when Lucas was nearby after I read up on Ioan Gruffudd on one of the lab computers. I never actually asked him to do any research. I apologize if his actions upset you."

"Well I wasn't upset over Alana de la Garza," said Jo, her expression softening after she'd heard Henry's explanation. "I actually found out about her years ago. I was mostly upset at the thought that you'd stoop to trying to get back at me."

"Really Jo, you know me better than that," said Henry shaking his head. "I'll have a word with Lucas about this."

"Thanks Henry, I appreciate that. I'll talk to him though, this is between him and me."

Henry nodded. "As you wish." As Jo left his office, he suddenly wondered if he should have insisted on being present for the talk, and only hoped that she wouldn't be too hard on him.

* * *

The next day, it became clear to Henry that he should not have let Jo talk to Lucas alone. When he arrived at the morgue, he found Lucas on the floor next to a filing cabinet with his arms wrapped around his bent legs, hugging them close to his body in an almost upright fetal position. He quickly rushed to Lucas's side and knelt down next to him. Lucas was shaking and rocking back and forth slightly. His eyes were vacant and he look absolutely shell shocked. "Lucas, what's happened? Are you hurt? Are you ill?" He felt Lucas's forehead, and while his skin did feel clammy, there was a no sign of a fever.

Lucas slowly looked up at Henry and forced his eyes to focus. It took him a few moments before he was able to form words. "I had no idea that Detective Martinez could be so vindictive."

Henry's eyebrows shot up in surprise, wondering what Jo could have possibly done that would make Lucas react in this way. "Alright Lucas, why don't you get up off the floor and you can tell me what happened in my office?" Lucas just stared at him blankly for a moment before dropping his head down to rest it on his knees. Henry tried to get a grip on Lucas's arms and pull him to his feet, but Lucas only responded by hugging his legs tighter, and he found that he was unable to budge the larger man. Sighing in defeat, he turned around and sank to the floor next to Lucas, leaning against the wall with his legs stretched out in front of him. "I'll just sit with you until you're ready to talk then."

It took several moments, and a few deep breaths, before Lucas regained the ability to speak again. "At first it seemed like everything was ok, like she wasn't mad at me, you know?" Lucas paused and Henry nodded for him to continue. "She invited me out to the pub for a drink to show that there were no hard feelings. It was actually pretty nice. Then she invited me back to her place to watch a movie. I thought it was pretty strange because I know she doesn't like me that way, and I'm not sure if she even considers me a friend, but I figured what the hell, and went with her."

"Alright, then what happened," Henry asked, encouraging Lucas to go on with his tale.

"Well the movie she wanted to watch was Avatar. I'd never seen it before because I'm more into horror than sci-fi, but I'd heard that it had some amazing CGI, so I agreed to watch it with her. Apparently it was her intention to give me a taste of my own medicine, because there was an actor in the movie, Joel David Moore, who looks exactly like me. It was really freaky because the character he played was a scientist like me, except that he worked with alien plants and animals. I tried really hard not to let it get to me so I could enjoy the movie, but the whole thing was just really freaking me out, so eventually I had to ask Jo to turn it off."

Henry nodded and gave Lucas a sympathetic smile. "I can certainly understand from experience how unnerving that can be. However, I fail to understand why it would cause such an extreme reaction in you."

"Well she was fine with turning off the movie, but then she suggested that we watch a TV show called Bones instead, which is a crime show that largely focuses on identifying bodies that are unrecognizable due to decay or extreme trauma. I should have known better, but that show sounded so cool, so I agreed to watch it with her. Then the episode she put on also had Joel David Moore in it, and it was even worse than watching Avatar because the character he plays in this show has almost the same job that I do. About halfway through the episode, I couldn't take it anymore, so I got up and left. I came here hoping you were working late, but you'd already left for the night. I was going crazy and couldn't bring myself to go home to an empty apartment."

"Do you mean to say that you spent the entire night here on the floor?" Henry asked in disbelief. Lucas nodded sheepishly. "Oh Lucas. You could have called me if you were in distress."

"I... well... it was late. I didn't want to wake you or Abe up."

"I wouldn't have minded," Henry assured his assistant. "As for Abe, he is rather easygoing, and even if he became annoyed with being awoken, he would not remain so for long."

Lucas sighed. "It's also possible that I didn't want to call you because I was mad at you."

Henry quirked an eyebrow and tilted his head quizzically. "At me? Whatever for?"

"Well you were the one that wanted me to look into whether or not Detective Martinez had any actress doppelgangers," Lucas explained. "Otherwise none of this would have happened."

Henry sighed and ran a hand over his face. "That was a misunderstanding. I was merely thinking out loud. I never asked you to research that for me."

"Then why didn't you tell me not to when I said that I would do it?" Lucas asked with a bit of a scowl.

"I'm sorry. I was distracted and I don't think I fully heard what you said," Henry explained. "I also apologize for what happened with Jo. I told her that I would talk to you about it, but she said that the matter was between the two of you, and that she would talk to you herself. If I'd had any idea what she had planned, I would have insisted on accompanying her."

Lucas nodded and smiled slightly. "Thanks Doc. I really appreciate that."

"I still fail to understand why this experience provoked such a strong reaction in you. What was it precisely that upset you so much?"

"I just started having all these crazy thoughts. What if I'm not really real? What if I'm just another one of Joel David Moore's characters?" Lucas closed his eyes, feeling his heart start to race from just thinking about it. "I swear this is messing with my head even more than The Matrix did."

Henry shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. He couldn't say he was all that surprised though, since Lucas often came up with crazy sorts of theories like this. Sometimes his imagination was just too wild for his own good. "I'm not sure which matrix you are referring to, but I can assure you that you are real, and that this entire train of thought is completely absurd."

"But how can you know for sure? What if you and Jo aren't real either? What if none of this is real and we're all characters in some sort of movie or TV show?" Lucas demanded.

"Lucas you're getting hysterical. Take a few deep breaths and calm yourself." Lucas nodded and did as he was told. Henry patted him gently on the back as he breathed in and out. For a moment, he thought that if his entire reality was some sort of television program, then having a condition that defies all logic would make a lot more sense. He shook his head and mentally slapped himself, refusing to buy into Lucas's ridiculous delusion. "I don't believe for one minute that we are characters in some work of fiction. However, if hypothetically this were the case, then there is nothing that we can do about it anyway. So I suggest you stop worrying about it and just live your life."

"Yeah I guess," Lucas answered uncertainly. "The only thing is, if we are part of some fantasy, I'd really like to have a word with the writers."

Henry chuckled. So would I, he thought. So would I.

* * *

When Henry got home from work that evening, he found Abe sitting on the couch in the living room. Abe didn't return the greeting that he called out, and he seemed to be hunched over his laptop, intently watching something on the screen. Henry went around to the front of the couch, and when he could see Abe's face, it seemed to be frozen with one half of his face slack, and he had an expression that was a mixture of confusion and disbelief. Henry rushed to sit on the couch next to Abe.

"Abe what's wrong? Talk to me. Are you having a stroke?" Henry asked frantically. Abe just continued to stare stunned at the computer screen. Henry grabbed one of Abe's wrists and took his pulse. It was a bit fast but steady. Abe pulled his arm out of Henry's grasp and pointed at the computer screen. Henry took a look, but all he saw was a picture of Abe, and couldn't understand what was going on. "It's a photo of you, I can see that, but why do you appear to be frightened of it?"

"It's a video actually," Abe finally spoke, "and it's not me. I mean it is me but it's not."

"Abraham, you're not making any sense."

"Just watch," said Abe. He unpaused the video clip and started playing it from the beginning.

Henry watched the screen, and a video played showing a man that appeared to be Abe playing chess with a younger man. When the video had finished playing, he found that all he could do was look at Abe with a perplexed expression. "That's not you?"

"Well he looks like me and sounds like me. He even plays chess for crying out loud!" Abe exclaimed irritably. "The only thing that doesn't fit is the cigar. I'm a doctor's son, and I knew better than to ever pick up that habit."

"Yes and I'm very glad of that," said Henry giving Abe a quick hug. "Though your lookalike doesn't seem to be any better at playing chess than you are," he teased.

"Hey! Trying to win against someone that's been playing for over 200 years is no easy task," Abe protested.

Henry chuckled and ruffled Abe's hair affectionately. "So it seems we both have doppelgangers. Wherever did you find this video?"

"It's a clip from a science fiction movie called Independence Day. It was in an email from Lucas that was sent late last night claiming that the video would blow me away. Well he wasn't wrong." Abe frowned as he saw faint traces of anger forming on his father's face. "Do you know why he would send me this?"

"I believe so. I'll save the details for later, but to make a long story short, I believe that he sent you that video because he was angry with me. We've already had a talk, so I don't think anything like this will happen again, but I'll have a word with him anyway at work tomorrow."

Abe nodded. "Don't be too hard on him though. No harm done really."

"Yes, well all the same, I'd like to make it clear that he is not to take it out on you if he has an issue with me," Henry insisted.

"Fair enough. Oh this reminds me, I may have found a lead regarding that whole Ioan Gruffudd thing," said Abe excitedly. "By any chance did you ever date a woman named Anwen Gruffudd?"

"No I haven't. If I had, don't you think I would have remembered the last name and mentioned it to you?" Henry asked, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Yes right... Well then I suppose Ioan Gruffudd is not your great-grandson," Abe said in a disappointed tone.

Henry laughed. "That's probably for the best. The last thing we need is you contacting him and claiming to be his great uncle."

"Well he may not be a direct descendant, but he could still be related to you through other members of your family," Abe pointed out.

"If you think you'll have fun researching it, then be my guest," said Henry smiling warmly at his son. "Though I think I am content to let the matter drop at this point. It's been a long few days, and I think I've had quite enough of doppelgangers."

* * *

This story didn't come out quite as good as I had hoped, so I apologize if it's rather cheesy and if there is some OOCness. I hope that it still made you laugh despite any shortcomings.


End file.
